Emeria
The Emerian Republic (commonly referred to as just Emeria) is a located in the , to the north of the and to the south of the . The nation has an estimated population of 14.620 million people as of 2017, making it the most populous country in the world, and a total land area of 235,610 square kilometres, making it the largest country in the world. Emeria is a with a based upon a variation the British . The National Diet is elected via electorate every five years, and through a the Government is formed from the largest political party or coalition of parties. Formally, the President, the ceremonial , is responsible for appointing the Prime Minister, the actual , who in turn appoints the cabinet ministers from the National Diet. However, the President wields no real, non-emergency political power, and only serves as a national figurehead, thus meaning that the President does not have a real voice in the creation or the administration of governance. The base of the Emerian system of government was created in 1910, after the creation of the Dominion of Emeria still within the British realm, and was modified into its current form with the abolition of the monarchy in 1945. Emeria’s first permanent inhabitants were the progenitors of the Whanaki peoples, who came to the islands around 1300 CE. The islands which make up the country were first visited by Europeans in 1779 by , who partially led a remainder of ’s after his death in . The islands would not be permanently settled until 1798, when Paul Whitman, a former member of Cook’s crew, was granted permission by the British crown to to establish a colony at the mouth of the River Avon, which came to become Whitsbury. The British continued to settle Emeria in great numbers, establishing it as a major stopover point for Transpacific maritime commerce. In 1910, Emeria was granted status, establishing home rule on the islands, which gave the islanders greater autonomy over areas such as immigration, trade, and policy. Emeria’s relationship with flourished as that nation sought to build a . Emeria fought alongside Japan during the in capturing the , but began to recluse as Japan became increasingly militaristic in the epoch that followed, and as Emeria suffered greatly from the . In 1941, during the , Japan invaded and occupied Emeria, though it was relatively bloodless and Emeria was liberated by the United States in 1943. After the end of the Second World War, Emeria formally abolished the monarchy and cut most of its political bonds with the , instead pursuing a path of international . As the divided the world, Emeria built stronger bonds with democratic and , focusing on the creation of a North Pacific economic bloc. It's strong ties with led to a heavy hit from the , though deft leadership led to a general recovery by the beginning of the 21st century. Contemporary Emeria is considered a , economy with a high ranking level of civic freedom and . Appleton and Whitsbury are often included on lists of the world’s , and the Lake Alban region is a world-famous area of idyllic, natural beauty. Although Emeria has a high rate of at around 78.4%, the tradition of its people is tied to the historical mass settlement of the countryside by migrants. The successive elected governments of Emeria have all historically supported policies of agrarianism and , leading to its status as one of the world’s foremost . The bulk of the non-agricultural economy is made up by services and industrial , which combined compose over 63% of the nation’s GDP. Although it is a heavily naturalist country, Emeria is also one of the world’s countries, with the national rate of internet access at around 98.2% of the population. Emeria has pursued a policy of international since the end of the Second World War, focusing only on a global level largely to promote in the fields of the arts, commerce, and science. Emeria has strong cultural and historical bonds with the , and in the modern day the country has special agreements with , , and . Furthermore, Emeria has strong bonds with the , and is a co-member of the North Pacific Economic Area with , , and . Emeria is a founding member of the , a member of the , the , the , and the . Etymology The crew of Captain were the first Europeans to visit the islands which make up the contemporary Emerian Republic. noted in his log that Emeria was “''home to beauty of a nature so divine that verily so it must have been ,” and as such, he named the archipelago the ''Eden Islands. When Paul Whitman settled Eden Island in 1798, he named the colony after the Greek primordial goddess of sunlight, , due to the favourable weather that the settlers enjoyed in comparison to Britain’s constant overcast. Hence, Emeria was coined with the dropping of the initial ‘''h''’ as was done naturally through the accented speech of the settlers. Eden Island was renamed Emeria, while Paradise Island was renamed Arvesta; the latter being derived from the English word harvest. From 1798 to 1910, the British polity was known as the Crown Colony of Emeria, and from 1910 to 1945 it was known as the Dominion of Emeria. When the monarchy was abolished, and Emeria left the Commonwealth in 1945, the official name became the Emerian Republic. In 2002, the Government added Standard Whanaki as a recognised language, and formally amended Nuwhaina as a recognised name for the country. The word means “''land of abundance''” in Standard Whanaki, and was the Northern Whanaki name for Emeria Island specifically. History The first humans to settle the islands of the Eden archipelago were oceanic migrants, who arrived around 1300 CE. Known as the Ancestral Whanaki, they primarily inhabited the southeastern coast of Emeria Island, known to them as Nuwhaina, which was particularly fruitful due to its from the various es which are located in that region. The Ancestral Whanaki were originally a pacifistic people, whose bountiful agriculture and fishing generally kept tribes content within their boundaries without much movement. However, around the year 1700 CE, Mount George, the largest volcano on the archipelago, erupted in a chatostrophic fashion, killing nearly a tenth of the population outright and a further near three quarters in the resultant famine. Scarce food resources saw the outbreak of constant war between the tribes, and by the time of the arrival of the Europeans, there were no more than 5,000 Whanaki remaining. Discovery and early colonial period (1779-1850) The of the English explorer Captain was continued after his death by , who continued from the northwest-ward towards the . Upon turning due north from there, they unintentionally set upon the island of Bounty, where they stopped in early 1779 for rest and repose. They continued northward, hoping to reach , but instead became the first Europeans to visit the island of Eden, as it was then named. They set anchor off of what is believed to be present day Clipper Bay, where they saw first Eden Island Sea Otters, and they officially claimed the previously unknown land for King . They were the first outsiders to encounter the Whanaki people, whose post-Nuwhahi conflicts had reduced their once idyllic existence into a state of perpetual warfare. Clerke brokered a truce between the tribes, who saw the Europeans as the bringers of an eternal peace according to local traditions. Clerke lived amongst the Whanaki until his death, and thereafter, lead the expedition northward to Kamchatka, stoping once more with the Whanaki before departing towards Japan and eventually England. In 1784, a former crew member named Paul Whitman of the sought out a company of colonists to take to the near-mythical island that they had discovered on their previous voyage. Whitman’s family had historically been farmers, but fledgling industrialisation was bringing about a change to economic and social order that Whitman , seeking instead to connect with the of the world. Hence, Whitman organised the Whitman Eden Company to garner support from patrons in order to request a royal grant from the government. As Great Britain had recently lost the as a result of the , any concerted efforts to found new colonies saw at least a minor amount of support from the government, and after about three years of lobbying, the WEC was given a grant to establish a on Eden Island. The WEC began preparations to send an original 2,000 colonists over a period of five years starting in 1788. They hired four ships to take a hundred settlers each along with crew, and embarked on the year long journey on 15 February 1788. The first 93 settlers, along with Paul Whitman, arrived in the March of the following year, spending two weeks searching for a point of disembarkation before selecting the present day site of Whitsbury. Thus, on 6 April 1789, the Crown Colony of Emeria was established. Whitman was appointed Governor, and in one of his first acts of office he extended fealty to the Whanaki in exchange for recognition of tribal territories. The Whanaki accepted, and within the colony, the Whanaki Confederacy was established among the tribal chiefs, who then went back to England with the returning colonial vessels. By 1793, Whitsbury was fully established by the WEC, and regular arrivals of new settlers saw the town grow quickly. In order to insure the subjugation and concentration of the Whanaki Confederacy, Whitman commissioned the founding of a second town on the eastern coast of the island, and hence, in 1795, the town of Port George, which would later be renamed Appleton, was chartered. From there on out, the colony quickly grew into a centre of British power in the North Pacific, with Whitsbury becoming a major base by the beginning of the 19th century. Settlers flocked to the fertile soils of Emeria, outpacing the indigenous Whanaki population by 1810. Towns sprang up quickly in the fruitful Avonian Plain, and with the completion of the Whitsbury-Port George Road in 1818, the interior region around Lake Alban also flourished with the foundation of many new settlements. The rapid development of the western and eastern coastal plains saw the rise of concern among the Whanaki, whose position of accepted subjugation quickly became resented by many traditionalist community leaders. Whanaki opposition to British rule reached its peak with the foundation of the first towns in the southeastern coastal hills, the heartland of the Whanaki, which was in direct violation of the treaty first accorded to them in 1789. However, the introduction of into Whanaki society essentially made this opposition non-threatening, and rampant ravaged the Whanaki to such a point where they became a non-threat to British rule. By 1850, colonial control over Emeria was absolute, and a combination of geographical isolation alongside complete submission of the natives meant the British colony was essentially without any existential threat. Late colonial period (1850-1910) The later period of British rule over Emeria was characterised by the arrival of and the beginning of in the highly agrarian colony. The first factories emerged in Whitsbury and Appleton, the latter which had been renamed in 1853, in the years 1858 and 1859 respectively, with becoming a major industry in the highly agriculturally productive colony. The development of processing of cotton and wool products was also permitted by the British government, as it hoped to reduce its high dependence on the . Another major motivation for the allowance of intense domestic economic development in Emeria by the British was the emerging of that nation in the Pacific, whose policy of was often stretched across the Pacific in its most radical definitions. The British relax of economic control would allow for Emeria to stand on its own for a time while waiting for Imperial assistance should the Americans ever include the islands in their neo-imperialistic ambitions. The large scale development of Emerian industrial power saw a shift in the development of colonial society, as new immigrants and even some rural denizens began to concentrate in cities instead of the countryside. The opportunities for work kept immigrants from the coming, and specifically, immigrants began to settle on the island of Arvesta in large scale a;s a; result of the . A major consequence of the increasing numbers of immigrants and the crowding of the two principle cities saw many older Emerians become dissatisfied with the path of the Colonial government, as many of those older immigrants had left the British Isles due to the development of industry and poor living conditions in their home areas. Many Emerian farmers and residents of the countryside began to propagate for the experience of nature and the untamed beauty of the archipelago. With this came the creation of the Emerian Naturalist Organisation of Communities, or ENOC, in 1884, whose leader, half-Whanaki Kakainea Harrison, became a highly influential figure in Emerian society at-large. Harrison and ENOC saw the creation of a bond between , rural Emerians and the confederated Whanaki peoples, a relationship which was built on advocacy for the conservation of the Emerian environment and the preservation of agrarianism as a major facet of the colony's society. ENOC led many volunteer efforts to keep industralisation to a minimum through raising money for rural settlement, helping the heavily downtrodden and impoverished Whanaki tribesmen, and lobbying for the purchase of large tracts of land for their in a natural state. Although the British government detested the creation of a powerful opposition organisation, its massive and continuously growing popularity made it impossible to remotely suppress without an effective occupation of the islands by Imperial forces. Hence, ENOC became deeply rooted in Emerian society and massively influential in the colonial government. By the , many throughout Emeria, both rural and urban alike, began to desire at least some form of that would give them a say in the creation and implementation of policies which directly affected them. After was granted dominion status in 1901, ENOC began to actively campaign for the same status to be afforded to Emeria, in a mix of the political ambitions of ENOC members and a general want of autonomous control for the islands. Abigail Harrison, the daughter of Kakainea Harrison, became a leading figure in the home rule movement, and her contributions towards the organisation of substantial protests against British rule saw her gain a heroic status among Emerians, which eclipsed their preconceptions of her gender. In 1907, the British agreed to begin negotiations with senior leaders of Emeria’s bureaucratic and political establishment and leaders of ENOC, excluding Harrison, for the arrangement of home rule on the islands. On 12 May 1910, Emeria Act was passed by the , granting the creation of a home government on the islands. Category:Emeria Category:Nations